Gluten Free and Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-free and vegan double chocolate chip cookies. Could it really be this easy?

Admittedly, since becoming vegan just over two years ago (we celebrated on the 28th of August YAY!), I haven’t done much baking. I’ve mainly relied on recipes that you can’t go wrong with like the Classic Apple Crumble, Baklava, Summer Trifle and Nut and Dat Stuffed Apples. But actual cakes, cookies and slices have made me nervous to try baking. The reason for that is because a lot of the recipes that I’ve seen use a lot of substitutes like vegan butter, vegan cream cheese etc but I generally stay away from them because we never eat those things normally.

I’ve found that the American recipes have many more substitutes that aren’t so readily available here in Australia. I’d like to appeal to a global audience so I’m quite mindful of the ingredients that I use. Sometimes you’ll find recipes that have ingredients that you probably need to go to a health food store or an Asian/Indian grocer. But generally speaking, I try and keep ingredients mainstream.

In saying that, I’ll always look at the healthier option. You’ll never find artificial or refined sugars, poor quality oils or vegan mock meats in my recipes. I aim to create whole food plant based healthy recipes. This is how we live and this is how I would like to inspire others to live as well.

Today’s recipe is one that took a bit of experimenting but I’m glad I finally took the plunge and started. You’re probably thinking “trying out vegan and gluten free cookies, no big deal!” For me, this was a little win 🙂 You’ll probably see more recipes like this coming in the future. I’ll try to alternate between raw and baked treats.

The thing that I love about this recipe is that it doesn’t have much in it, takes no more than 30 mins from start to finish and the end result is delicious! You can easily give these to your kids as a treat or even as a snack. It’s healthier than any cookie you’ll find at the shops.

You can also experiment with different flavours, add in some peanut butter, desiccated coconut or smear some homemade chia jam on the top when cooled.

Combine all the dry ingredients - flour, cacao powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and mix well together.

Place a small bowl over a small saucepan with a little bit of boiling water on the stove, combine all wet ingredients - coconut oil, vanilla, water and maple syrup. Mix together until coconut oil has completely melted.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add in the chocolate chips and mix well. You can also use your hands. It may look a little wet, but give it some time and it will firm up a little.

Line a baking tray with unbleached baking paper.

Take a heaped tablespoon of mixture and shape into a cookie.

Continue this process and pop the cookies into the oven to make for around 12 minutes.

Remove from oven and leave for about 15 minutes. Then transfer onto a rack to completely cool.